Recap Roundup: DCI Southeastern Championship (Atlanta)

by Michael Boo

On Saturday, July 26, all World Class corps came together for the second time this season on the same day, competing at the DCI Southeastern Championship in Atlanta's Georgia Dome. The top 21 placements all had higher scores than the equal placements at last year's show—Only the 22nd-place corps had a lower score.
There were two judges for GE 1, GE 2 and Percussion, with scores from each of those pairs of judges averaged together for the total caption score. The scores of the two Effect captions are counted for full value, but each of the scores of the three Visual captions (Visual Proficiency, Visual Analysis and Color Guard) and three Music captions (Brass, Music Analysis and Percussion) are first divided in half, with each of those half scores added together for the Total Visual and Total Music scores.
Just a reminder that we no longer refer to the General Effect captions as Visual GE and Music GE. Those captions are now known as General Effect 1 and General Effect 2, with each judge taking more of an overall view of every corps' entire show—Sort of like how the average fan views a show.
There were some switches in placements from the DCI Southwestern Championship in San Antonio a week prior. Carolina Crown gained the better of Santa Clara Vanguard, Blue Knights passed Phantom Regiment for the first time since 2000, Colts went ahead of Spirit of Atlanta, and the Academy switched placements with Oregon Crusaders. Blue Devils remain undefeated, increasing their spread over the second-place Cadets to 1.40 from 0.675 in San Antonio.
View the complete recap of scores from AtlantaBlue Devils (1st, 95.100) were 1st in both GE captions, Visual Analysis, Color Guard and Music Analysis. Visual Proficiency, Brass and Percussion finished in 2nd, Percussion tying with the Bluecoats. The 1.40 spread over the Cadets was mostly due to a 0.90 advantage in total GE, even though Cadets took 2nd in GE. A 0.30 spread over Cadets in total Visual and a 0.20 spread over Cadets in total Music accounted for the remaining 0.50 of the victory margin.
The Cadets (2nd, 93.700) took 1st in Visual Proficiency, and 2nd in Color Guard and Music Analysis. Both GE captions placed 3rd, but the corps managed to place 2nd in total GE. One GE 2 judge placed the corps in 2nd and the other in 5th. Visual Analysis and Brass finished 3rd, and Percussion ended in 4th.
Bluecoats (3rd, 92.950) took 2nd in GE 1. Percussion also took 2nd, tying with Blue Devils. The corps placed 3rd in Color Guard and Music Analysis (tied with Crown), and 4th in GE 2, Visual Proficiency, Visual Analysis, and Brass. The corps' 0.30 advantage over Carolina Crown was mainly due to having a 0.70 spread in Percussion (0.35 in the final score).
Carolina Crown (4th, 92.650) was 1st in Brass, 2nd in GE 2 and Visual Analysis, 3rd in Visual Proficiency and Music Analysis (tied with Bluecoats), 4th in GE 1, 5th in Color Guard and 6th in Percussion, those last two captions accounting for the bulk of why the corps didn't finish in 2nd overall.
Santa Clara Vanguard (5th, 91.825) took 1st in Percussion, 4th in Color Guard, and 5th in the six other captions.
The Cavaliers (6th, 89.650) were 5th in Percussion, 6th in both GE captions, Visual Proficiency and Music Analysis, 7th in Color Guard and Brass, and 10th in Visual Analysis, down from 7th in San Antonio (and also scoring 0.30 less over one week).
Blue Knights (7th, 88.600) took 6th in Visual Analysis and Percussion, 7th in GE 2, and 8th in five of the remaining captions.
Phantom Regiment (8th, 87.625) had the widest variety of caption placements in the top 12, placing 6th in Brass, 7th in Visual Proficiency and Music Analysis, 8th in GE 2 and Percussion, 9th in GE 1, and 10th in Color Guard.
Boston Crusaders (9th, 86.650) was 7th in GE 1 and Visual Analysis, 9th in GE 2, Visual Proficiency, Color Guard, Music Analysis and Percussion, and 10th in GE 2.
Blue Stars (10th, 86.150) took 6th in Color Guard, 8th in Visual Analysis, 9th in both GE captions (but 10th overall), 10th in Visual Analysis, and 11th in Visual Proficiency, Brass and Percussion.
Madison Scouts (11th, 84.950) took 9th in Brass, 10th in Visual Proficiency and Percussion, and 11th in the remaining five captions.
Crossmen (12th, 83.050) was 12th in all captions except for 13th-place finishes in GE 2 and Brass.
Troopers (13th, 81.675) finished 12th in GE 2 and Brass, 13th in Visual Proficiency, Music Analysis and Percussion, 14th in Visual Analysis and Color Guard, and 15th in GE 1.
Colts (14th, 80.925) was 13th in Visual Analysis and Color Guard, 14th in both GE captions, 15th in Visual Proficiency, Brass and Percussion, and 17th in Music Analysis.
Spirit of Atlanta (15th, 79.700) was 14th in Visual Proficiency and all three Music captions, 15th in Color Guard, and 16th in both GE captions and Visual Analysis.
The Academy (16th, 79.000) was 13th in GE 1, 15th in Music Analysis, 16th in Visual Proficiency and Percussion, 17th in GE 2, Color Guard and Brass, and 18th in Visual Analysis.
Oregon Crusaders (17th, 77.825) took 15th in Visual Analysis, 16th in Brass and Percussion, 17th in both GE captions and Visual Proficiency, 18th in Music Analysis and 20th in Color Guard, down from 16th in San Antonio.
Pacific Crest (18th, 76.125) was 16th in Color Guard and Music Analysis, 18th in both GE captions, Visual Proficiency and Percussion, and 19th in Visual Analysis and Brass.
Mandarins (19th, 75.225) took 17th in Visual Analysis, 18th in both GE captions and Brass, and 19th in the remaining four captions.
Jersey Surf (20th, 72.175) placed 18th in Color Guard, 21st in GE 2 and Brass, and 20th in the other five captions.
Cascades (21st, 70.675) placed 20th in GE 2 and Brass, and 21st in the remaining six captions.
Pioneer (22nd, 67.650) placed 22nd in all captions.